Maualuga v. Claiborne
Some of Rey Maualuga's stats from the past two years are almost identical.
2007: 79 tackles, 6 sacks, 3 deflections, 1 interception, 1 forced fumble.
2006: 78 tackles, 2 sacks, 3 deflections, 1 interception, 1 forced fumble.
It's a good time to remember just how good a college player Chris Claiborne really was. Let's look at his junior year.
1998: 120 tackles, 5 sacks, 16 deflections, 6 interceptions, 1 forced fumble.
That's 16 deflections and six interceptions. And he was a junior.
Rey has a way to go to catch Claiborne or the other greats at linebacker. Hopefully, this year will be the one that does it for him. He has many fans hoping so.
I was a Chris Claiborne fan from the first game I saw him play in (an even bigger drubbing of Illinois) on, but for Rey's part, those USC teams didn't have a Top 10 draft pick in the middle or two other first-rounders on the outside.
I was a huge Chris Claiborne fan, but the team he was on did not have anywhere near as many stars as the current teams. Not to diminish what Chris did, because he was fantastic, but I do not think he would put up the same stats playing on this team, especially with the way the Pete subsititutes players so frequently.
Claiborne was a stud MLB for USC. I remember his signature play of single handidly stopping a fourth down sweep against Florida St. Unfortunately, his last game was the debacle against TCU in the Sun Bowl. It seemed like he and the rest of the defense were a step slow, and could not contain the option (TCU had LaDanian Tomlinson, so that might explain some of it.) It look like he gained a few pounds on the banquet circuit before the bowl game. Too bad Claiborne did not have similar success in the NFL.
yep then we got him on the detroit lions and destroyed his career hahahaha
Ahem, that's Butkus Award Winner Chris Claiborne to us mortals.